3 January 2014 - your name is like honey on my lips

3 January 2014 - your name is like honey on my lips

she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Look!  Even in the manager the shadow of the Cross is seen.  Even in the manager we can glimpse the glory of the resurrection.  We hear the name given by the angel, Jesus, Savior.  And we know in what this salvation consists.  He is "obedient unto death, even death on a cross."  Savior is not just what Jesus does it is who he is.  Jesus is God but "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped".  Humility marks the very essence of who Jesus is.  He is love itself.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name

The name Jesus is lifted above every other name.  The Son of God himself bears the name Savior and fully earns it in a way that no one else can.  Others have borne the name previously and others have borne it since.  But only in Jesus is this name raised above every other name.  Only Jesus is so full of selfless and humble love as to truly be savior to his people.  The words of a song capture it well:

Humbled for a season, to receive a name
From the lips of sinners unto whom He came,
Faithfully He bore it, spotless to the last,
Brought it back victorious when from death He passed.

Bore it up triumphant with its human light,
Through all ranks of creatures, to the central height,
To the throne of Godhead, to the Father’s breast;
Filled it with the glory of that perfect rest.

Only Jesus loves enough to empty himself so completely for us.  Because of this "there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" (cf. Acts 4:12).  This is the love which brings God from his throne in heaven to "be called Emmanuel", to be "God with us".  No one else loves enough to step down from the throne of their own life for the sake of others in a way that is completely selfless.

So let us learn how we out to treat so great a name.  This name is exulted above every other name but not to subjugate us.  The highest name is not simply LORD.  Out of love for us the highest name is now also Savior.

Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD!

Jesus is the name of the LORD.  This name heals cripples (cf. Act. 3.6).  It grants salvation (cf. Act. 2:38).  It makes Jesus present to us whenever we think or speak it. It therefore gives rest as it allows us to come to him when we are weary and heavily laiden (cf. Mat. 11:28).  His pure sacrifice of love is offered from the rising of the sun to its setting (cf. Mal. 1:11).  Therefore:

From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is to be praised!